Once Upon a Time: The Vernal Equinox
by Chad Rick Lesens
Summary: A tall, thin, kind and unusual stranger comes to Storybrooke, Maine. Who is he? What brings him to Storybrooke? And after everything that has happened to the once cursed people of the Enchanted Forest, can he even be trusted?


**Disclaimer: I do not claim any property or profit in the characters and plot references in this story. All rights belong to ABC, Disney, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.**

One

Good Luck

A cold, but gentle breeze brushes past his gentle, but rugged face. The moist air cools the flushed complexion of his cheeks and ears, and emanates the scent of fresh rain into his chiefly round nose and through its narrow bridge. The mist itself silently turns into dew upon his dark, long, but thin brows and lashes. The howl of a distant wolf reaches the drum from within his round ears. The rough pavement of the single-lane freeway rubs against the weathered and torn soles of his shoes. The light of the full moon shines through the edge of a storm cloud that is departing, allowing vision into his youthful, yet ancient, bright-blue eyes to see the road directly ahead of him.

He lifts up his head to see the ever-constant tree line on either side of the road, and turns to his right to see a sign held up from the ground by wood poles on either side. Reaching back towards his hiking pack with his left hand, he feels for a cylindrical tube strapped to the side. He loosens the strap and gets a hold of the tube, feels for a rubber bump and presses on it. A light springs forth from the cylinder, shining on whatever lies in front of it. He moves his hand upward to direct the light towards the sign, reading the inscription that is revealed.

_Welcome To Storybrooke_.

Lifting his free hand to adjust his old, newsboy cap, and heaving a gentle sigh of relief, he turns back to the road, and presses onward while switching off his metallic torch. Roughly a quarter of a mile from the sign he begins to see street lights, shortly followed by intersections with street signs. He keeps traveling on the same road, which leads him to Main Street. To his left, in the distance, is a tall building with a clock tower, indicating the time to be 11:43. Across the street, to his left also is a diner called _Granny's Café_, and to his right is a two-story house in blue, with a sign on the front saying _Granny's Bed & Breakfast_. Noticing that the light to the main lobby is on, he steps up to the patio stairs and climbs them to the door. As soon as he turns the knob and pushes it forward, a bell rings from the top corner of the doorpost.

As he reaches the front desk, an elderly woman with reading glasses hanging around her neck on a chain comes in from around the corner. After using his scruffy scarf to wipe off the dew on his face, and cordially taking off his cap to reveal shaggy, brown hair, the man approaches her politely.

"Hello," he says in a low, baritone voice and a wide smile, "I would like a room, please."

"Sorry, mister," the woman responds in a grumbling and tiresome tone, "we're about to close up."

"Oh," he gasps in confusion and creases his eyebrows, "You sure you can't squeeze a bit more time to let me check in?"

"Didn't you read the sign," she replies with a slight growl, "Hours are from 8 AM to 11:30 PM." He turns around to see that there, indeed, is a sign on the door indicating hours they are open.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry. I guess I'm a bit tired from all the travelling that I've done I didn't bother to check." He then reaches into the left pocket of his lean trousers and pulls out a thin role of cash.

"But maybe since we're both here right now, can't you make a small exception tonight?" He unrolls the money to reveal a five-dollar bill, two twenties and a hundred. The lady looks down at the cash, then back to the wiry young man wearing scruffy clothes in front of her who asks, "Not enough?"

She continues to observe the behavior of this man with slight suspicion and begins to frown, wondering where he would acquire that sort of cash and produce it at the ready. "Why are you so anxious to stick around?"

"Oh, well, I just go wherever the road takes me, that's all." She gives an even more quizzical look at him.

"And I'm…just looking for a place to rest my feet for the night," he continues while smiling and holding his cap with both hands, all of this in an awkward position. She only continues to stare at him with discomfort and unease.

"But I guess the nearest park bench is just as good, huh?" She then notices him putting on his cap and quietly turning to the door. Feeling even more uncomfortable now, under these circumstances, she heaves a sigh before a younger woman calls out, "Granny?"

Turning to face the newest member in the room, the man notices, from where she stands behind the elderly woman, that she is taller by a few inches, with long brown hair, and wide, hazel eyes. But what he notices in particular is the red attire she is wearing, almost as if she lives for the color.

"Ruby," the elderly woman known as Granny exclaims, "I told you to close up…"

"Don't worry, Granny, the Café is closed up and swept clean," the woman in red now called Ruby cuts in. "What _I'm_ wondering is why aren't you letting him check in?"

"It's after hours," Granny grunts, "And you know that there are no exceptions."

"But surely it's no trouble if we just let one customer sign in a little bit late."

"Oh, oh no, miss," the man fumbles as he reaches for the tip of his cap, "If there are no exceptions, then I really shouldn't impose."

"But you've already paid for a night in advance," she replies then turns back to Granny, "What's fifteen minutes late if we're here to check him in anyway?"

"Ruby," she grumbles back.

"Besides," Ruby continues, "He looks like he's just come from a long journey, and _on foot_. Don't you think that's a little inhospitable of us to treat a newcomer like this?" After heaving another sigh, but this time in admiration, Granny then turns to the man and opens up the ledger for him to check in. At first hesitant, the man slowly advances toward the book and picks up the pen. He looks up at them both saying, "If there's no trouble…"

"Not at all," Ruby answers. He looks back at the book and begins to sign on the fresh page. He puts down the pen and turns the book back to the women behind the desk. Upon looking at it, Ruby reads aloud, "Albert…Pepin?"

"Well, it's French, so it's actually pronounced _Pay-pohn_," the man replies, now known as Albert.

"Albert Pépin," Ruby tries it out, "That's a nice name."

"Well thank you," he grins back, "I like it a bit myself."

"Ruby Lucas," she announces with an extended hand and a wide smile.

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Lucas," Albert says while raising his own hand to shake her's. Then turning his hand towards Granny he asks, "And you must be Mrs. Lucas?" What he does not expect is the sudden placement of a room key attached to a parrot-shaped key chain into his hand.

"That's Widow Lucas, but I just go by Granny around everybody," she now says in an exhaustive grunt, "Room Number Two, right down the hall."

"Oh, no kidding," Al exclaims with a wide smile again, "Two's always been my lucky number."

"I'm afraid there's not so much luck in this town," she replies gloomily, "except the bad kind."

"Oh, now I wouldn't say that, Granny," Albert kindly states, "After all, it's almost the first day of spring. And spring always means new life, hope, and rebirth. And besides, I wouldn't have found a place to rest my head and aching feet if it weren't for your kindness. So I suppose that is good luck."

"For you, perhaps," Granny grumbles again.

"Well, maybe some of that good luck will rub off of me and onto you," he says with a smile as he extends his hand to her once again. It is only after she finally takes it that Al then puts on his cap and tips it in their direction.

"Good night, Miss Lucas, Granny. And thank you for you hospitality." He then makes his way down the hall to his room, holding onto the straps of his hiking bag.

* * *

><p>Upon seeing the way her granddaughter follows the young man with her gaze, Granny elbows Ruby against her arm saying, "Don't trust him. He's just a total stranger to this town."<p>

"Well that may be so, Granny," Ruby responds, "But that doesn't mean we should just treat him so…poorly." At this Granny huffs as she puts away the ledger back behind the desk.

"Perhaps I taught you too well in having good manners," she says. Granny is proud of how much Ruby has taken great strides in maturity since the curse lifted. But sometimes Granny notices how she tends to use such formalities and manners against her own grandmother to get her way.

"Oh, please, Granny," Ruby retorts, "I mean it's not like we could just leave him out in the cold. And you know how bad the weather is going to be this week."

"May I remind you that as long as we've lived in Storybrooke, the only strangers that come here mean us great harm?" This time she lowers her voice to a whisper.

"Remember the Wicked Witch, Peter Pan, and those two anti-magic hunters he sent? And have you already forgotten the Snow Queen?"

"But what about Emma," she counters in a low tone as well, "To us, she was only a stranger before she lifted the curse that got us here in the first place. And now she's the town sheriff. And she has done nothing else but stopping all those people from ever destroying us."

"I meant _after_ that," Granny responds. "And since then, that's all that she's ever done for the people of this town. Because that's all that's ever happened: trouble. So we can't afford to trust any strangers that come here at all."

"Granny, are you sure you don't have the Shattered Vision anymore," Ruby asks.

"That's nothing to joke about."

"But then what about our resolution?" Granny recalls the one thing that they did after the Shattered Vision was lifted from the whole town. After the way everyone saw each other differently, to the point of only seeing their faults. She even remembers how everyone began to turn on one another. So, she and Ruby agreed to make a resolution: to place more faith and trust, and to be honest with each other, so as not to repeat the damage that followed from that catastrophe.

"If we can put our faith and trust in each other, what's so different about putting a little trust in the next stranger that comes along?"

"That's the thing. He is a stranger."

"But only if we keep pushing him away from us. We should get to know him first. That's how we start trusting him." Once again, Granny realizes that Ruby is using another lesson that she learned against her grandmother. With another huff, she crosses her arms and looks into her granddaughter's eyes asking, "You like him, don't you?" This catches Ruby off guard.

"What? Granny…" she stammers.

"Do you?"

"Wha – I…Granny, that's not fair. I just met him."

"All the more reason to get to know him better right?" This time it is Ruby's turn to have her own reasoning turned against her. She huffs in discomfort due to this sudden shift in the conversation. Upon noticing how much she made her granddaughter uncomfortable and uncertain, Granny gently places her hands onto Ruby's shoulders.

"Look, Ruby," Granny tells her, "I know that you mean well. But before you start making such decisions about other people, you need to first be sure to have good reasons to decide in the first place. Or else, you end up hurt."

"Granny," Ruby says as she rolls her eyes, "I can take care of myself, you know that."

"I wasn't talking about physical hurt, as much as I was about emotional." Granny then makes her way to her own bedroom, leaving Ruby to ponder what she had just been told.

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